“Here we have the entire tribe of humanoid beasts trapped, and we can’t finish them off!” He paused, then included, the entire group in a sweeping gesture. “You’ll all pay dearly for this!”
A major next to Captain Mulla muttered under his breath, “A commander is supposed to accept the ultimate responsibility…” But he didn’t say it loud enough for General Urko to hear.
The officer with the bloodied head now asked a question timidly. “What should we do, general…?”
Urko whirled around toward him, his eyes bulging, saliva dripping from his gleaming tusks. The gorilla general’s voice was shrill as he screamed at the embarrassed officer, “You’ll do nothing! From now on, I will!” He waved his arm and shouted to all his officers. “The army is to return to Ape City!”
“But, sir, the humanoids—”
Urko ignored the simian officer. “The army will be resupplied with every piece of military equipment known to apekind!” The big gorilla leader started striding back toward the stone bridge that led back to the rim of the cliffs. His voice was low and menacing as he growled, “I’ll rid this planet of the humanoid plague yet!”
Urko’s officers looked at each other in amazement, and in some humiliation. Captain Mulla stared at the pueblo, silent now and impregnable. What’s going on with these humanoids? he wondered.
“Better sound retreat,” a lieutenant suggested to Mulla.
“No. Retreat is a dirty word to the general.” He motioned a sergeant to him. “We’re merely regrouping—for reinforcements and resupply,” he said.
The veteran sergeant’s face did not change, but the very stoniness of his expression told Mulla a lot.
“I know, sergeant,” he said, “but there’s nothing else we can do. The general…” The gorilla captain hesitated. You didn’t discuss the peculiarities of superior officers with noncoms—not if you could help it. But in his mind, Mulla finished the thought: …the general is a little insane.
The sergeant saluted, and sounded the call. “Withdraw! Regroup on the cliffs! Double-time! C’mon, move it!”
The ape soldiers, confused and dejected, withdrew with gloomy, angry looks at the shuttered pueblo.
Mulla was the last to leave. Night was falling. It’s going to be a long, tough trip back to Ape City, he thought, longer and tougher than the advance.
* * *
Jeff’s head came up through a trapdoor into the upper level of the pueblo. Looking around the crowded room, he saw Bill, and then Ron and Judy.
“They’ve gone,” he said, pulling himself into the chamber as Nova brought him some water and a few pieces of fruit. He sat down and started eating. “I scouted all the way up to the rim of the valley. No trucks in sight!”
Bill heaved a sigh. “Our worries aren’t over yet. The gorillas are bound to attack again. And next time they’ll bring heavier firepower! A few howitzers could make rubble out of this place in minutes!”
Jeff wiped his mouth and said, “What can we do? The pueblo can withstand rifle okay, and even a gas attack. We got some through the slits, but with some insulation and some slit covers, we could fix that. Caulk up the cracks and so on…”
Bill looked around at his three astronaut, friends and at Nova’s alert expression. “Our only real chance is to stop the gorilla army from ever entering the valley again.”
“But with their artillery… Well, I don’t see how that’s possible,” Judy groaned. “They could blow up any wall we erected up there by the rock bridge. Or—”
“Not if we destroy the stone bridge…!” Bill announced to everyone’s surprise. “No jeeps could come down into the valley. And big weapons—machine guns and howitzers, etc.—couldn’t be brought down either, even if troops could make it down the cliffs. Any troops that tried to get down those rock walls could easily be picked off by us—even with bows and arrows!”
“Unless,” Jeff reminded Bill, “Urko finds the northern route—where there are no cliffs barring the way!”
“Well, not even we, or any of our humanoid friends, have ventured that far north yet. Let’s not worry about that happening now,” Ron offered.
“But how do we destroy the stone bridge?” Judy asked.
Bill turned to Ron Brent. “With your spacecraft self-destruct mechanism. We’ll use it to blow up the stone bridge.”
Ron smiled happily. “Superb! He could never get heavy guns down here without that rock bridge!”
“But if we want to get out…?” Judy asked.
Jeff spoke up. “There are only mountains that way, in any case. But if we have to go that way, cut a harrow trail up with the laser, and maybe even hide it some way.”
“Suppose Urko brings a crane,” Ron speculated. “He could drop guns and troops down that way.”
“I don’t think so,” Bill said. “First of all, he won’t expect us to have the brains—or the means—to blow up the rock bridge. So he won’t have brought a crane. And there’s nothing up there he could make one out of—no trees, nothing.”
“And next time?” Jeff asked.
“There may not be a next time.” Bill’s voice sounded definite. “First of all, Urko has failed to get us a couple of times now. He must be in deep trouble back home. And with the delays, it gives us time to do something about this whole mess!”
“What do you mean?” Judy asked anxiously.
Bill took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
“I think we have to consider that we aren’t ever going back to our own time.” He held up a hand to stop the protests. “Yes, I know, I don’t like to think about that, either. But look at it this way.” He held up a hand and took his forefingers with the fingers of the other hand. “One: we know of no way to reverse time—at this time, if you’ll pardon a weak pun.” A second finger unfolded from his fist. “Two: we have no research facilities, no idea even where to start. Three: I feel we have an obligation to the humanoids to try and give them a better life.”
“Or at least be certain they’ll five,” Judy added.
“Right. Four: just keeping alive and out of Urko’s mitts is looking to be a full-time job. Five…” He looked each of them in the eyes. “Five: I think this is to be our home, since it’s Earth—although it’s an Earth so radically changed that… well, I think we should explore it and find out what went wrong. If we should ever get back to our own time—somehow—we ought to be able to tell everyone what happened, or is going to happen. Maybe, then, they can prevent it.”
Ron nodded his head soberly. “I think you’re correct on all points. You know, for years I thought I was on some alien planet… somewhere lost in the stars. But when I found out from you that I was on Earth…! Well, I think Earth is worth fighting for.” He gestured at the silent humanoids sitting around, most of them staring curiously at the talking humans. “These people are worth fighting for.”
“You’re right, Ron,” Jeff said. “If we do go back—even if we could go back—what would we be? Four astronauts who probably would be outdated and outmoded. And probably put away as loonies, if we told the story.” He paused. “But here—here we’re a catalyst! We are a new factor. We can change things—scientifically, socially, even philosophically!”
Judy smiled at him. “You’re a revolutionary!”
Jeff nodded. “In this case, you bet! In any case where people are being unfairly oppressed. Can you think of a more deserving case than this?” He pointed at the huddled masses of dumb figures wearing skins, furs, and frightened expressions. “Can you think of anything better than making it possible for these people—our own descendants!—to live in freedom and dignity?”
Judy was silent. Then she said softly, “No, of course not.”
“Then we stay… and fight… and learn!” Bill concluded.
They all nodded in agreement.
Bill stood up. “I think we have just enough light to set that charge and blow up the stone bridge now!”
Ron got up. “I’ll get it,” he said.”
* * *
Bill and Ron were studying the curving arch of the bridge.
“The trouble is,” Ron said, “I don’t know the power of this thing. I know it’s big enough to destroy the spacecraft, but how it will work against tons of solid rock, I don’t know.”
“Well, let’s just do our best.” Jeff came down from the top of the bridge and Bill asked him: “Find a good spot?”
“There’s a place that’s thinner than the rest, but if we blow it, there will be the stub of this part left and they might get some kind of bridge across.”
“We’ll have to chance it. If we try to blow something that this charge can’t handle, then we’ve lost our chance. Better to be certain, and then guard the stub of the bridge that’s left.”
“Okay, I’ll set the charge,” Ron said. “Show me the spot, Jeff.”
The three astronauts started up the rock bridge. “I hope the explosion doesn’t frighten the humanoids too much,” Ron worried. “They’re such shy creatures.”
“That’s why I gave Judy and Nova their instructions,” Bill told him.
“Right here, I think,” Jeff said, as they arrived at the natural bridge’s narrowest point.
In a few minutes, they set the charge in what seemed to be an ancient crack; then they piled as many loose rocks over the charge as possible. These would, hopefully, help to shatter other parts of the bridge.
“I’ll set the time for ten minutes. All right?” Ron asked.
“We’ll all go down together,” Bill said. “If anyone falls, the other must carry him.”
Ron set the timer, then pressed the button. There was a faint clicking and a soft whirr in the night, and Ron yelled, “Let’s get out of here—now!”
The three men ran quickly but carefully down the slope of the rock bridge, found their way down the rock “fist” at its end, and ran across the grassy meadows of the valley floor.
The explosion ripped open the sky, illuminating everything in a stark blue-white light that almost at once changed to dull red. A few seconds later the sound thundered down the valley. Debris and dust rained down upon them.
“Wow!” Jeff shouted to Ron. “They really gave you a bomb!”
The echoes of the explosion reverberated up and down the valley, dying off between the steep cliffs. Dirt and pebbles showered down, bouncing off the men’s heads and shoulders, slithering off the leaves of the trees, and filling the whole area with a choking dust.
The three astronauts lifted themselves off the spot on the valley floor where the force of the explosion had thrown them. They had just started walking back toward the stone bridge when Judy ran out of the pueblo to join them.
“You’ve done it!” she cried. “And we’ve beaten the gorillas at their own game!”
The air was clearer now, and by the light of the quarter moon they were able to see that the explosion had destroyed most of the bridge, leaving only a broken stub of the base, far below the rim of the canyon.
“If I can get the laser fixed,” Jeff said, “I’ll trim off anything that might give them any other way to get down. In fact, I could do that all the way around the valley!”
“Good idea,” Ron seconded him. “I think we’ve fixed it so the apes can’t get to us now!”
Bill put up a restraining hand. “Hold on now! We’re still not out of trouble. We have more pueblos to build. All those humanoids can’t live as tightly packed as that. We have crops to plant, and we have to teach these people something about agriculture, too. Remember, they’re used to seasonal migrations to where the food is, and that’s impossible now.”
“And animal husbandry, too, Bill,” Judy put in. “Maybe we can domesticate those deer we saw, or find other animals.”
“Right! And we have to find a spot to build an airfield,” Bill added.
“Retrieving that P-40 airplane is going to be dangerous,” Jeff said quickly. “There’ll be gorilla patrols all over that area—if they haven’t already found the plane!”
“I know,” Bill answered, “but that airplane could make a lot of difference. What we’ve done just now to destroy the stone bridge won’t matter if the apes find that plane—and learn to make more of them!”
Ron suggested: “Maybe we can find enough sulfur and potassium nitrate around here to make gunpowder for bombs. Charcoal—the other ingredient—would be easy to make.”
“Even dropping rocks would do some damage to the apes’ military headquarters,” Judy said, “to say nothing of the scouting values a plane has.”
“Of course, there’s the matter of gasoline,” Jeff pointed out.
“There are problems,” Bill admitted. “But the point is: Are we ready to face them?”
Jeff looked at Bill with astonishment. “Well, of course, fearless leader!” A serious note entered his voice as he added, “I mean, what else can we do?” The others agreed, and started walking with Bill back to the pueblo.
Jeff hesitated, looked at the faint stars and the crescent moon, then ran after his friends. What will be our fate? he wondered. What strange and curious thing will we discover next? Can four humans overturn an established dictatorship? Are the apes too powerful…?
Jeff Allen walked on, disappearing into the gloom of night, as from the shattered face of the cliff behind him, a shattered stone broke away and fell, rattling and bouncing down to an unknown fate.
ALSO AVAILABLE FROM TITAN BOOKS
PLANET OF THE APES
OMNIBUS 1
Beneath the Planet of the Apes by Michael Avallone
Escape From the Planet of the Apes by Jerry Pournelle
PLANET OF THE APES
OMNIBUS 2
Conquest of the Planet of the Apes by John Jakes
Battle for the Planet of the Apes by David Gerrold
Planet of the Apes by William T. Quick
PLANET OF THE APES
OMNIBUS 3
Man the Fugitive
Escape to Tomorrow
Journey Into Terror
Lord of the Apes
by George Alec Effinger
TITANBOOKS.COM
ALSO AVAILABLE FROM TITAN BOOKS
PLANET OF THE APES
TALES FROM THE FORBIDDEN ZONE
Planet of the Apes was a seminal work of sci-fi that inspired generations of filmmakers and authors. Now a who’s who of writers—including Kevin J. Anderson, Nancy Collins, Jonathan Maberry, and John Jackson Miller—produce sixteen brand-new stories set in the world of the original Planet of the Apes films and TV series. Each writer will explore a different drama within the post-apocalyptic world, with their unique visions and non-stop adventure.
DEATH OF THE PLANET OF THE APES
Taylor, the astronaut from Planet of the Apes (Charlton Heston), appeared briefly during Beneath the Planet of the Apes, but his whereabouts remained largely unknown—until now. Revealed for the first time are Taylor’s deadly adventures, the violent unrest among the apes, and the secrets of the mutant city hidden beneath the Forbidden Zone.
TITANBOOKS.COM
ALSO AVAILABLE FROM TITAN BOOKS
WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES
THE OFFICIAL MOVIE NOVELIZATION
GREG COX
The official novelization of the blockbuster film, following the story begun in Rise of the Planet of the Apes and continuing in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. Written in close collaboration with the film team. The movie’s stars include Andy Serkis (Caesar), Judy Greer (Caesar’s wife Cornelia), and Woody Harrelson as “the Colonel.”
TITANBOOKS.COM
ALSO AVAILABLE FROM TITAN BOOKS
WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES:REVELATIONS
GREG KEYES
The exclusive story—told only in this novel—leading to the novelization of War for the Planet of the Apes, following events begun in Rise of the Planet of the Apes and continuing in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. The movie’s stars include Andy Serkis as the ape Caesar, Judy Greer as Caesar’s wife Cornelia, and Woody Harrelson as “the Colonel.”
TITANBOOKS.COM
For more fantastic fiction, author events, competitions, limited editions and more
VISIT OUR WEBSITE
titanbooks.com
LIKE US ON FACEBOOK
facebook.com/titanbooks
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER
@TitanBooks
EMAIL US
[email protected]
Planet of the Apes Omnibus 4 Page 47